Sherdenia Thompson Dunn - On her education, missionary work, and segregation
Interviewed by Charlotte Eure on April 7, 2016
“...It really became the motto of my life- to live like that. Not just for knowledge or education, but to have tools like that- qualities, virtues that can help people fight battles through life.”
- Sherdenia Thompson Dunn
Sherdenia Thompson Dunn was raised in Carrboro in the 1950s and early 1960s during segregation and the civil rights movement. She talks about her experience growing up in Black schools and what it was like attending UNC as a Black person and a woman. She also discusses her desire to experience international culture, which drove her to attend UNC and to be a missionary for 35 years afterwards. Sherdenia’s experiences and relationships at UNC and beyond were integral to forming her outlook on life and race, and she particularly notes her time with UNC’s Valkyries. After her time as a missionary, she worked as a substitute teacher and then as a testing coordinator for New Century Charter High School and she reveals how her own experiences influenced her teaching methods and her own process of learning that continues today.
This interview is part of a project done in fall 2015 and spring 2016, conducted by SOHP undergraduate interns with members of the Black Pioneers, the first African American students to attend and integrate UNC-Chapel Hill from 1952 to 1972.
